Taxi group drives ahead with south-west move
PRIVATE hire and taxi group Veezu has acquired a business in the south-west of England, establishing its fourth taxi hub in the UK.
Veezu has acquired V Cars, which has operations in Bristol, Bath, Chippenham and Swindon, from founder Dave Scaramanga, who remains in the business in a senior management role.
The Wales-based taxi group has three existing taxi hubs throughout the UK operating under their local brand names – Dragon Taxis in south Wales, A2B in Solihull and Birmingham and Amber Cars in Leeds.
The establishment of the fourth taxi hub not only gives Veezu a presence in the south-west of England for the first time, but also increases the number of drivers it provides dispatch services to across the group by 40%, up to approximately 3,500.
Joel Hope-Bell, chief executive officer at Veezu, said: “A core element of our growth strategy is to increase the number of regional taxi hubs in the Veezu group and the acquisition of V Cars sees us continuing to deliver on this.
“The south-west is of strategic importance to Veezu as it further bolsters our presence along the M4 corridor and enables us to operate in additional major cities and towns, which offer substantial growth potential.”
V Cars also operates as Abbey Taxis in Bath and Streamline in Bristol.
“It has been in business for more than 25 years and handles approximately 50,000 journeys every week.
Mr Hope-Bell added: “V Cars, Abbey Taxis and Streamline are all well-established businesses in their own right.
“We are delighted that they are now part of the Veezu group, and we are looking forward to working closely with Dave to continue to develop and grow the businesses and deliver a ‘best-in-class’ service to all passengers and customers.”
Mr Hope-Bell was appointed Veezu’s chief executive officer in the summer.
The 43-year-old, who has been the chairman and a shareholder of Veezu since the business was founded in 2013, succeeed co-founder Paul Ragan who, following his decision to step down, has remained a substantial shareholder in the company and is on the board as a nonexecutive director.
At the time of his appointment it was announced Mr Hope-Bell will execute on Veezu’s ambitious organic and acquisition led strategy following four years of sustained growth.
“I’ve worked with Veezu from the beginning and am proud to have always taken an active role in this exciting company’s growth and development,” he said in the summer.
He grew up near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, graduated from the University of Leeds with a firstclass degree in environmental science and is a qualified chartered accountant.
“I’m well-versed in the ambitions of the company and I have witnessed at first-hand all the hard work that Paul has put in during the past four years to grow the business to the enviable position which it is now in,” he said.